I smile for No One

I realized this morning while looking through some older pictures, that Reece doesn't seem to like to smile for pictures. Here is a Reece medley of his many faces we see, that others may not

Here is the " I'm going to mess up your face " face

We like to refer to this face as " Mean Eyes" He is notorious for making this face at us. All the time

Tired at Disney a few years ago, it was cute and I wanted to add it

Finally Auntie Robin bought him this crazy game 2 years ago, that really isn't a " game" at all, just pieces of robot faces that fit together on this mask and has a robotic voice box. Crazy, I think he'd scare the cats with this mask

Fun in the Sun( or 98 degree heat)

Since we've been on the boat a lot lately and the beach, we decided to do Sam's Surf City to beat the heat of this oppressive summer that has descended on us, with no chance of any cooling trend soon. Adeline was very nervous when we got there, of all the screaming coming from the big slides. There was an intermediate area that had a splash zone where you could wait while a giant bucket filled and then dumped a monsoon of water on you. The sound was so loud and crashing that Adeline stood by and watched with fingers in her ears.

We tried the Lazy River first which Rick lovingly referred to as the " Jackie" River. We went around and around quite a few times just to soak up the cool water and see if Adeline would actually fall asleep while we floated.

Steve Irwin you got nothin on the Parrish's and their ability to subdue a floating crocodile

Adeline under a palm tree

Waiting on some Dippin Dots to cool us down

One of the 2 kiddie slides in the small tot area. Adeline refused to do either of these.

This bucket was Rick and the kids favorite thing. And since Rick IS a big kid, he sat in the "splash zone" as the only adult and waited the 3 minutes in between saturation. The force of the water coming off that roof was so intense, I couldn't take Adeline over there or she woulda been forced into the cement. The hair dos post bucket drop were quite stylish. Flattened 70's looking flock of seagullish hair.

This park was a blast though and we will have to go back soon. I felt like a kid again and love taking my own kids to do things I enjoyed as a child. I may not be brave enough to go on those chutes that practially rip your bathing suit off, but that doesn't mean I don't have an awesome time.

I can dress myself, thank you very much

I guess that classic "terrible two's" has begun. She demands to choose her own outfits and puts them on herself. So what if both legs are in 1 pant hole, the point is she looks better than what mom could've done. These are snow white jammies with her unders on inside out and on the outside. She's got the Tara Reid problem going on too. Ready for a walk mom, let's go!

Again the uni-leg appears. Yes, I fix the problem, if she lets me. She even has her purse ready to go shopping

This is first thing in the morning and she made a snarly face at me for taking her picture
OK, apparently she has a thing for headbands. I hear this is all the rage in Europe.

Daddy snapped this shot, I guess he also loves the ensembles making their appearance on our catwalk. This is the Olivia Newton-John Get Physical look. All I can say is she's helping me with that one step I don't have to do, like getting her dressed. If she likes the look, then so do I.

Miss Emma turns 8

On June 8th Emma turned 8!!! WoW, I can't believe my oldest is finally approaching that 10 year mark. Then I will finally feel like I actually have a "big kid". Until then the fact that she still says "aminal" and "pliano", makes that little toddler inside of her surface, and no the teacher in me will not correct her mispronunciation. Here is her Baskin Robbins mint chocolate chip purse cake. She LOVED it!

Apparently Aunt Emmy was the winner of the favorite cool gift this year. To be fair, I had told her Emma wanted this. Aunt Robin the snow cone maker was right up there too, since the first thing she wanted to do was start charging Reece for snow cones. Actually this toy, which I knew nothing about, is really super cool. So, FYI, any parent reading this with an upcoming birthday, that needs an idea. Emma and Reece played with this toy for about 3 hours yesterday. And the martian goo isn't sticky.

Emma picked out this crown using her tickets from the roller rink

She chose to have her party at Dreamland skating rink. These were the few kids we could corral for a group photo. She had this crazy idea a few months back to take everyone in her class on our boat out to the sand dune with the rope swing. She had it all planned out too. We would have the parents drop off their kids at the dock with life jackets and then 5 at a time, Daddy would take the boat to the sand dune, drop off those kids and come back for more. To a 7 yr. old this plan sounded great. So, instead we let her bring a friend to the sand dune on Monday, and had her birthday lunch at Surf Burger at the beach.

Emma being embarrassed by the roller DJ, making everyone sing happy birthday while she stood in the middle . ......... Grandpa, this is the outfit Emma picked out with your birthday money

The girls waiting for cake





I made an octopus cake out of a ball cake pan for the head and cupcakes for the arms, then used mini marshmallows for the suction cups. This was the best picture my better half took of the cake. It was kind of funny though, as I walked into the building the owner told me to take the cake to room 1. As I was walking down the ramp, a janitor said " hmmmm, an octopus cake huh?" "Did you see Room 3 has an octopus theme?" " Oh", I said "could we have room three instead?" " Nope" he replied. Well, what in the ham sandwich did he tell me about that octopus room for?!? Jeez
Happy Birthday Emma Leigh, my little girl, my first born. As long as I can still pick you up, comfort you when you are sad and listen to you play barbies, you will always be my half pint.

Rick's Birthday Fun

We all went out to Casino Beach and I brought shrimp cocktail and brie cheese, Rick's favorite. Every time Rick gave Emma the cheese to try with grapes, he would say " Do you want some more of the brie?" And Emma kept asking for more "debris" cheese. Just like her mother, Emma is not partial to the stinky rind, which Rick is more than happy to snarf down.
We just got the girls these long sleeved rash guards, Adeline felt pretty special in hers and kept pointing to the butterflies and smiling.

Alright, so this was the day AFTER Rick's birthday, b/c the Spanish ship arrived Wednesday NOT Tuesday. It came to celebrate the 450th anniversary of the founding of Pensacola. Reece brought his little rubber dagger from DisneyWorld, with him so he could look like a pirate in the pictures, but apparently Emma had snagged it away in this one.

Rick requested a cheesecake for his birthday, the kids loved it and Reece kept picking off the crust with all the buttered graham cracker crumbs.

While we partied at the beach, a small group of men were toiling in the hot sun, getting ready to lay the cement for our new patio near the pool. This is the area they dug by hand and then laid the cement later that afternoon. I'll post the after pictures next.

Watermelon Relays and Fantastic Frog Icecream

Let the summer BEGIN............... Two days before Emma got out of school for the summer, they had a Watermelon Day, complete with sliced watermelon, relay races and ice cream sundaes. Here Emma is waiting her turn to do the egg on the spoon relay.

Her group came in first during the jump roping relay- one poor child( I will let remain anonymous) ran down while making the jump rope go backwards in instead of forward, and kept tripping over his own feet and was like a big gangly puppy, with no coordination and had all us parents rolling on the floor. The rope was tangled around his ankles and he was on the ground more than he was running. Please someone give that kid some lessons.

Fiona and Emma eating their sundaes- apparently Emma is in ice cream heaven with her eyes closed in dream land

Reece's class was called the Fantastic frogs this year. They had a water day and a picnic lunch to end the year. He loved his teachers and with their help came out of his shell and warmed up to socializing in class and enjoying some time away from mom. This is Ms. Susan and Ms. Kate with Reece. I had to bribe him to get him to pose for this picture.

Reece and his best friend Jake- will someone please tickle Jake, I need to see a smile. Once while over at our house, he told Rick that he was a ninja and to refer to him as a ninja not Jake. These two are going to have a blast together over the summer.

As for our summer plans, we make our annual trip up to D.C. to see rick's parents and our nieces. I think we may be leaving on that in a few weeks. Then, possibly to see my dad in Myrtle Beach for some seadoo fun and stay in a beach cottage. I have kept our summer plans regarding the kids pretty minimal, so we could make time for traveling. To all our friends if you are in the area, please stop in, the pool is getting a new patio and that is probably where you'll find us every afternoon.